Europeans ditch Internet Explorer over security fears

Aharon Etengoff, 18th January 2010

The French and German governments have urged their citizens to consider safer alternatives to Microsoft's popular Internet Explorer browser.

According to the BBC, the French cyber agency known as Certa recently cautioned against using all versions of the browser. Germany also issued a separate warning after lines of malicious code used to attack Google were leaked online.

However, Microsoft spokesperson Cliff Evans told the BBC that IE8 was the "most secure browser on the market."

Indeed, Evans emphasized Microsoft has thus far only identified malicious code that targeted the older iterations of the browser, such as IE6.

Meanwhile, Sophos security researcher Graham Cluley noted that "alternative" Internet browsers, including such as Firefox, Safari and Opera, have all suffered from "security vulnerabilities" in the past.

"[As such], my advice is to only switch from Internet Explorer if you really know what you are doing with the browser you're swapping to. Otherwise it might be a case of 'better the devil you know,'" explained Cluley.

"My guess is that Microsoft will be working hard to release an out-of-band patch for the vulnerability. They will be keen to fix the serious security problem before more damage is done to Internet Explorer's reputation."